1. Technical Field
The present invention in general relates to the field of uses for sophorolipids and more specifically to the field of protein inducers and as a media component. The invention is directed to developing low cost inducers/repressors for protein production.
2. Prior Art
For production of proteins on a larger scale, a need exists for cheap and well defined molecules to act as inducers of the protein of interest and also as a repressor for unwanted enzymes. This aids in higher yields, decreasing the purification costs and enhancing the profits. Sophorose has been shown to be a good inducer of cellulase protein. See Hrmova, M., Petrakova, E., Biely, P., Journal of General Microbiology 137, 541-547 (1991). However, the cost of the molecule makes it impractical to be used at commercial level.
Sophorolipids are microbial extracellular glycolipids produced by resting cells of Candida bombicola. The chemical composition of sophorolipid is constituted by a disaccharide sugar viz. sophorose and a fatty acid or an ester group. Candida bombicola produces the sophorolipids as a mixture of macroloctones and free acid structures that are acetylated to various extents at the primary hydroxyl sophorose ring positions (FIG. 1). See Bisht, K. S. et al., J. Org. Chem., vol. 64, pp. 780-789 (1999).
It is to the development of sophorolipids for production and industrial purposes, and other purposes, that the present invention is directed.